The annual Penn Relays are over, but not without some more outstanding performances by local athletes.

Central Catholic graduate Gabrielle Cocco broke the Loyola-Maryland record in the 3,000 meters Thursday night at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

Cocco ran a 9:49.03 to finish 14th out of 24 competitors.

Easton High grad Chanelle Price, a senior at the University of Tennessee, ran a 2:04.2 anchor leg in the 3,200 relay Championship of America event Saturday.

The Volunteers finished second with a time of 8:27.04.

Price is coming off a dramatic win in the sprint medley relay Friday. She ran a 2:03.6 to allow Tennessee to hold off LSU. She also earned a silver medal as part of the distance medley relay Thursday.

Next up for Price is the Southeastern Conference Championships on May 10.

Bethlehem Catholic product Joe Kovacs, now a redshirt senior at Penn State, won the college shot put with a heave of 65 feet, 5 inches.

Nazareth product Jon Hendershot, also at Penn State, was sixth in the high jump with a best leap of 6-9.75.

Phillipsburg's Jon Harper was fourth in the 3,000-meter high school event, finishing in 8:32.23.

And, recapping Friday's impressive day by Bangor's Bryan Pearson: He finished fourth in the discus with a PR and school record toss of 181 feet, 4 inches. Hours later, he won the Allen Invitational discus and shot put competitions.

Bangor teammate Andrew Romeo was 17th in the discus at Franklin Field.

HIGH SCHOOL

Pennridge boys finished with an 8:00.92 in the 3,200 relay Championship of America race, also Saturday. The foursome of Austin Kohler, Joe Masgai, Nick Stenderowicz and Joey Logue qualified for the event with a time of 7:53.34 in Friday's high school race.

Palisades and Pocono Mountain West each ran in the boys' 1,600 relay Saturday.

The ESU women’s 800m relay ran the eighth-fastest time in school history in 1:44.77. Junior Lauren Ventrella led off in 25.8, sophomore Colleen Murphy ran 26.1, sophomore Rachel Pierantozi ran 26.8 and freshman Danielle Smith, a Whitehall product, anchored in 25.6.

Ventrella, Murphy and Smith also ran sub-59 second splits in the 1,600 relay Thursday.

Elsewhere, ESU senior Ian Melhorn set a school record with a 20.8-second split to anchor the men’s 4x200m relay on Friday. His split was two-10ths of a second faster than the 21.0 that Negus Graham, a three-time All-American in the 400, ran to anchor the Warriors to the second-fastest time in school history in the same event last year.

Melhorn also ran ESU’s fastest split on the Wetzler/Pennsylvania 4x400m relay later in the afternoon, clocking 48.7 seconds on the second lap. The Warriors, who had won back-to-back titles for the first time since 1984-85, were fifth in a field of seven schools in 3:21.82. Lock Haven won in 3:16.25.

Moravian senior Timothy Layng finished fifth in the pole vault with a best effort of 15 feet, 9 inches. He was the only of the nine competitors from a non-Division I school.

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Morning Call Sports Reporters Stephen Miller and Tom Housenick blog about high school and college sports action on and off the field in and around the Lehigh Valley, only at themorningcall.com.

Meet the bloggers

TOM HOUSENICK watches every move Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum makes on the court, laughs at every joke by Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon and watches all the Divisions II and III coaches and players do it for the love of the game. Basketball makes the cold weather season go by fast. Already can’t wait for late February and early March when each possession could result in a season ending or continuing on.

Wrapping up his ninth year at The Morning Call, STEPHEN MILLER is back for year No. 4 on the LVC football beat. He chronicled Central Catholic's state-championship run in 2010, watched Nazareth win its first LVC title in 2011 and saw the league crown tri-champions for the first time in 2012. He has also covered the Phillies, college football and a variety of prep sports while with The Morning Call. To stay updated on the 2013 LVC football season, check out the Varsity blog and follow him on Twitter @mcall_smiller.